Cougs look great at times in victory over Cal Baptist

PROVO — Favored to win the powerhouse-laden Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and be at or near the top of the first national rankings that come out soon, the BYU men's volleyball team opened its 2006 season with a solid four-game victory Friday night against Cal Baptist.

Before a semester-break Smith Fieldhouse crowd of 2,046, the Cougars beat the two-time defending NAIA champions 30-26, 26-30, 30-27 and 30-26 in a match that featured a smorgasbord of spectacular plays for BYU — and plenty of errors.

"It's hard for me to assess our learning curve this year," said BYU coach Tom Peterson, who returns five starters from last year's 20-10 team. "We're more experienced, but we still made errors. I hope that's just first-of-the-year jitters, but I'm not sure."

Sophomore outside hitter Ivan Perez posted a game-high 21 kills with the 2005 second-team All-American leaping to send scorchers at a .381 clip.

"He's kinda the power guy, and when he's on, he's on," said Peterson, adding that when the Cougars forgot to call plays for Perez, the Lancers went on a couple of runs. "But for us to be a great team, like a couple of years ago, we have to win it by committee — we can't rely on Ivan to win a championship for us.

Outsider hitter Taylor Evans added 14 kills (.345) and middle blocker Victor

Batista had 10 (.421). But CBU figured out Batista, the Cougars' other returning All-American, midway in the match and force-fed him a couple of his would-be kills.

As a team, BYU hit .321 for the match to CBU's .306 and outblocked the Lancers 12.5 to 7.5, with Batista in on seven block assists and setter Rob Neilson assisting on five.

As an NAIA program, Cal Baptist doesn't fall under some of the same NCAA eligibility qualifications, and the Lancers boasted a number of players with international experience and age advantages. Corey Spence led with 19 kills while the "foreign legion" threesome of Urs Gunthor (Germany), Seidu Ajanako (Ghana) and Romain Vetter (Switzerland) also finished in double-digit kills.

Coming off the 2004 NCAA title a year ago, BYU opened the 2005 season against the same Cal Baptist program — and lost. Not only did Friday's outcome differ from a year ago, but, according to Perez and Peterson, so does the Cougars' attitude.

"There's a better feeling on this team," said Peterson, citing experience, chemistry and cohesiveness.

Said Perez: "Last year, we talked a lot about goals, but we never did it . . . This year, we're more focused."

MATCH NOTES: The two meet again tonight at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse . . . BYU opens MPSF play next weekend at home against Cal State Northridge . . . Cougar outside hitter Rodrigo Gomes went down in pregame warmups; the Brazilian freshman suffers from a degenerative disk condition . . . CBU's Shamsu Awudu of Ghana also went down on the match's first play and didn't return.

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